It adds up for Fiserv

Sep 4th 2018

Financial tech company says hometown opportunity with Milwaukee Bucks made sense for its first major play in sports.

The bucks will likely stop with the Bucks.

That seems to be the initial plan for
Milwaukee-based financial technical services company Fiserv, which made a
huge splash into sports sponsorship last month by announcing its
25-year naming rights deal for the new home of the Bucks. But don’t look
for the company to expand its portfolio beyond the newly christened
Fiserv Forum any time soon, according to CEO Jeff Yabuki.

“We saw it as a very unique opportunity
with a brand-new arena in our hometown,” he said of the deal announced
on July 26. “Right now we are pleased with where we are. We will
continue to look at what are the right ways to elevate our brand in the
right place over time.”

The company would not disclose the value of the agreement, but sources pegged it to be worth at least $6 million annually.

Fiserv provides technology to banks,
merchants and other institutions to conduct electronic financial
transactions. The company sees the investment as a way to raise its
profile for the large, but relatively obscure business-to-business
brand.

“We’ve been around for more than 30 years and we
have been on a mission to redefine the company in response to the
transformation in the market,” Yabuki said. “We’ve changed the look and
feel of our brand. Financial technology is front and center in the
digital age. We thought it was an incredible opportunity to elevate our
brand and evolve into the next level.”

The deal creates a new, financial
technology and payments category for the Bucks, with Fiserv owning
exclusivity in the category.

“It was very important to create a
category and we will have the opportunity to showcase and display some
of our new technologies whether it’s buying a [Bucks] jersey or for
paying for a soda,” Yabuki said. “We have an understanding that we will
create unique technology experiences and attribute that to the Fiserv
brand.”

The company began talking with the Bucks
and team President Peter Feigin two years ago, early into the
construction of the $524 million arena, which opens this month. Van
Wagner Sports & Entertainment represented the company in the deal.

“Fiserv doesn’t fit the profile of a
typical naming-rights buyer — they have completely different objectives
and operate in a very new category for sports,” said Chris Allphin, Van
Wagner senior vice president.

“We
needed to make sure it made sense for us,” Yabuki said. “We had to
think about whether we were willing to do this for a long period of
time. We had to make sure that the parties will be compatible.”